


Caster Artoria Draft: Feelings on Merlin

by Hatsage7



Series: There are fine things, old boy, which are more brilliant when unfinished, than when finished too much. [2]
Category: Fate/Grand Order
Genre: (and that's okay), Drafts, Gen, This Will Never Be A Real Fic, also lancelot/guinevere and artoria (caster)'s fucking harem, but it's literally just a throwaway line
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-09
Updated: 2020-11-09
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:54:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,468
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27473830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hatsage7/pseuds/Hatsage7
Summary: Castoria, after being Ascended her 3rd time, is the ruler of Britain before. She has a new perspective, and it's a little overwhelming, so Fujimaru is talking with her while they walk.It's about Merlin. It's always about him, in one way or another.
Relationships: Artoria Pendragon | Caster/Morgan le Fay
Series: There are fine things, old boy, which are more brilliant when unfinished, than when finished too much. [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2007358
Kudos: 6





	Caster Artoria Draft: Feelings on Merlin

**Author's Note:**

> Some ideas from Artoria's perspective. I find the idea of an Artoria who can use magic *fascinating*, mostly because she'd almost have to have a very different relationship with Merlin and Morgan, to say nothing of the other Knights... who she's *really* not a part of any more. I know the game likes to play up Merlin as a decent, if somewhat unmotivated guy who basically liked Artoria and wanted her to succeed (especially obvious in dialogues with Lily and even Castoria). That's not quite Merlin though. At least, not the Arthurian Merlin, not the Excalibur (1981) Merlin (yeah, yeah), and certainly not *my* Merlin.
> 
> Can't use this any where, but it itched at me until I had to write it, months ago, and it's been itching at me still to post it here. 
> 
> also i just kinda want there to be an Artoria who isn't either evil or a bad king so. Artoria banished Merlin, married Morgan, and not only let Guinevere and Lancelot keep seeing each other but also let them come to the orgies okay please read have fun!!!

(After 3rd Ascension)

“You know, Merlin might’ve been the worst, most mercurial piece of shit I’ve ever had the displeasure to know -- but I get it. None of  _ my _ knights ever understood what having access to that much magic is like. It’s more of a curse than the crown ever was.”

“In what way?”

“Well, for one thing, it gives you a libido like you wouldn’t believe! To draw that much energy from tapping into the rhythm of the world, the primal forces of nature… well, it  _ does _ something to you. Merlin was technically a failed attempt at siring the anti-christ --”

“ _ What? _ ”

“-- so he was full to the brim with godlike power. There’s a reason Zeus went around laying with anything that moved, y’know. From what little I’ve seen of other Casters, I’d be amazed if they weren’t all sexually deviant in one way or another, ahaha!”

Gudao coughed loudly into his hand. He hoped he wasn’t blushing too badly. “I-I see. So that’s why Merlin…?”

“Oh, no, he chased young women around because he was a fucking creep. It’s more efficient and safe for everybody if two Casters sate their desires, so to speak, with each other. Why, Morgan and I --” Her pace faltered a little, and she nearly tripped over her own feet. “Ah, ahem, but that’s a story for another time!”

“Sure.” Gudao quietly hoped that they would never talk about this again. “Did magic have any other… more relevant effects.”

Castoria was quiet for a long time, and Gudao was almost concerned that he had offended her in some way. “Having magic… changes your perception of the world. Destroys it, you could say. I know that many less powerful mages had a tendency to isolate themselves and look at the world only in terms of material components. For people like me, Morgan, Merlin… being able to change the fabric of the universe makes it harder to stay grounded. (Obviously; it goes without saying.) If a law as fundamental as gravity doesn’t apply to a mage, how can laws of government? Of morality?

“You need  _ something _ to keep you from losing your humanity; community, organization, a single, concrete enemy, whatever. Even then, with such a singular focus, it’s so easy for something terrible to happen, and then suddenly nothing’s stopping you from razing the world to the ground.”

An image of Gilles de Rais with a Holy Grail appeared in Gudao’s head, so distraught over the death of his saint that he summoned an army of wyverns and a witch to lead them to burn France to a cinder. “That -- that explains a lot, actually.”

The woman nodded, then continued. “Merlin devoted his life in service to king and country. Possibly he thought he was serving God; I couldn’t say for sure, but it fits with everything else I know about him. Certainly, serving the throne is a better alternative than doing the whole anti-christ thing, but from what I’ve seen him do... he used his magic to help my father rape my mother, to “guide” me after drawing the staff by conquering dozens of kingdoms in bloody conflict, to keep me away from my half-sister, to pursue whoever he pleased as if his magic powers were just parlor tricks -- oh, and by the way, at no point during this did he meaningfully teach me about magic, or the fact that Excalibur and Avalon together create such a powerful feedback loop that they turn into a circuit with at least as much raw magical potential as the Holy Grail or the Spear of Destiny -- he didn’t even help us  _ search _ for the Holy Grail --!”

Gudao planted a hand firmly on her shoulder. Her eyes flicked wildly up at him, as blue and as hard as ice. She took in a deep shaky breath, then sighed. “Sorry. Point being, when he wasn’t actively causing problems in Logres’ royal intrigues, he was just a shitty mentor. Finding out about Excalibur and Avalon, and then Guinevere and Lancelot after that was the last straw.”

“I did what I should have done years ago, that same summer. I bribed a servant to flirt with him and bring him to a crystal cave near Camelot. Like he always did, he chased tail without a second thought. It was summer, after all; who wouldn't be in the mood? The only fighting going on was in friendly joust and melee. Even Morgan had been quiet for months, so I imagine he went frolicking without a second thought. He left his staff in his quarters, if you can believe that,” she said with a dry chuckle.

“Of course it was a trap. It’s so comically easy to do magic with crystals and gemstones as a focus that even he didn’t stand a chance of resisting. Armed with his own magic staff, I just… shaped the walls of the cavern around him. I don’t even know if he realized what was going on, that was how fast I encased him in a block of quartz. He couldn’t move or speak to free himself. I had him completely at my mercy.”

“I did the only sensible thing I could do. I transported the both of us to his own personal sanctuary, a castle that exists in a pocket dimension outside of space and time. Oh, don’t look so surprised, all the most powerful magic users have one; Chaldea itself fits that description. I dropped him off in his chambers, snapped his staff in half, threw one half over the balcony and took the other back with me to Camelot. I just barely had enough magical energy to toss myself over the dimension’s event horizon, which would have been a stupid way to die, if not suitably steeped in dramatic irony.”

Gudao spoke, finally presented with something comparatively less outrageous than the rest of the story. “Well, you wouldn’t have  _ died _ , right? I’m sure you could have created some food and water from magic.”

Castoria scoffed. “Yes, I would have just been trapped for all eternity in a place separated from everybody I care about with my murder victim. A fate  _ much _ better than death.”

“You didn’t kill Merlin.”

The Caster whirled around to face him, frowning harshly. “If your moral opposition to killing is that making people cease to exist is wrong, it doesn’t matter whether or not you technically snuffed out their life. I locked Merlin, a man who was my mentor and the single most important person in the world to me when I was young, naive, and impressionable, in a cell with no way for any to free him or for him to free himself. I call it murder, because the truth is actually much worse.”

...Gudao didn’t have a good response to that. “What happened to the Queen when you came back?”

Castoria blinked, slightly stunned, before continuing with her story in a much more pleasant tone. “Well, a scandal on that level is an enormous deal. I revealed it on my own terms rather than allow it to escalate and someone else to make the discovery. I had a few options, of course; I could have the two of them sent to a local nunnery and brotherhood of monks respectively, which the knights probably wouldn’t have agreed with, executed them outright, which the nobles definitely would have revolted over, challenged Lancelot to a duel as a matter of honor --” here she broke into laughter, and took some time to recompose herself, “ -- or, ah, I could have sent them into exile in France, the worst of both worlds that still would have let the two of them keep their dignity at the expense of the kingdom. Any punishment would have been unequivocally terrible and involved nullifying a marriage, which would have weakened my reign probably beyond the point of no return. Especially because I don’t think anyone could have stopped me from taking Morgan as my queen at that point.”

  
“Which did you choose, then?”

She smiled, like he had stepped right into a well-crafted trap. “I used her infidelity as an excuse to install a royal harem. I got to keep both of my otherwise wonderful friends at court, they got to keep seeing each other without fear of discovery or retribution, and  _ everybody _ got to have a lot more fun.” Gudao felt his face  _ boil _ at the mental image. Castoria just shrugged. “I did say magic gave you a terrible sex drive, didn’t I?”

“Y-you also said that two casters together -- ” 

“Oh yes, certainly, but sometime you want to change things up, and if you have the opportunity to create a harem, that’s kind of the end-all be-all of variety. You know a thing or two about  _ that _ , don’t you, Master~?”

“I  _ really _ wouldn’t know.”

“Mm-hmmm. As you say.”


End file.
